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arXiv:1203.6692 · Physical Review A

Experimentally demonstrating reference-frame-independent violations of Bell inequalities

Matthew S. Palsson, Joel J. Wallman, Adam Bennet, Geoff J. Pryde

Published Sep 17, 2012• 26 citations
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Abstract

We experimentally demonstrate, using qubits encoded in photon polarization, that two parties who share a single reference direction and use locally orthogonal measurements will always violate a Bell inequality, up to experimental deficiencies. This contrasts with the standard view of Bell inequalities, in which the parties need to completely align their measurements. Furthermore, we experimentally demonstrate that as the reference direction degrades the probability of the observers randomly choosing measurements that violate a Bell inequality decreases gradually and smoothly to $39.7%\ifmmode\pm\else\textpm\fi{}0.1%$ in the limiting case that the observers do not share a reference direction. This result promises simplified distribution of entanglement between separated parties, with applications in fundamental investigations of quantum physics and tasks such as quantum communication.

DOI
10.1103/physreva.86.032322

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We experimentally demonstrate, using qubits encoded in photon polarization, that two parties who share a single reference direction and use locally orthogonal measurements will always violate a Bell inequality, up to experimental deficiencies. This contrasts with the standard view of Bell inequalities, in which the parties need to completely align their measurements. Furthermore, we experimentally demonstrate that as the reference direction degrades the probability of the observers randomly choosing measurements that violate a Bell inequality decreases gradually and smoothly to 39.739.7%\ifmmode\pm\else\textpm\fi{}0.1%39.7 in the limiting case that the observers do not share a reference direction. This result promises simplified distribution of entanglement between separated parties, with applications in fundamental investigations of quantum physics and tasks such as quantum communication.
Bell tests - the experimental demonstration of a Bell inequality violation - are central to understanding the foundations of quantum mechanics, and are a powerful diagnostic tool for the development of quantum technologies. To date, Bell tests have relied on careful calibration of measurement devices and alignment of a shared reference frame between two parties - both technically demanding tasks. We show that neither of these operations are necessary, violating Bell inequalities (i) with certainty using unaligned, but calibrated, measurement devices, and (ii) with near-certainty using uncalibrated and unaligned devices. We demonstrate generic quantum nonlocality with randomly chosen measurements on a singlet state of two photons, implemented using a reconfigurable integrated optical waveguide circuit. The observed results demonstrate the robustness of our schemes to imperfections and statistical noise. This approach is likely to have important applications both in fundamental science and quantum technologies, including device-independent quantum key distribution.
Multipartite nonlocality is of great fundamental interest and constitutes a useful resource for many quantum information protocols. However, demonstrating it in practice, by violating a Bell inequality, can be difficult. In particular, standard experimental setups require the alignment of distant parties' reference frames, which can be challenging or impossible in practice. In this work we study the violation of certain Bell inequalities, namely the Mermin, Mermin-Klyshko, and Svetlichny inequalities, without shared reference frames, when parties share a Greenberger-Horne-Zeilinger state. Furthermore, we analyze how these violations demonstrate genuine multipartite features of entanglement and nonlocality. For three, four, and five parties, we show that it is possible to violate these inequalities with high probability, when the parties choose their measurements from the three Pauli operators, defined only with respect to their local frames. Moreover, the probability of violation, and the amount of violation, are increased when each party chooses their measurements from the four operators describing the vertices of a tetrahedron. We also consider how many randomly chosen measurement directions are needed to violate the Bell inequalities with high probability. We see that the obtained levels of violation are sufficient to also demonstrate genuine multipartite entanglement and nonseparability. Finally, we show analytically that choosing from two measurement settings per party is sufficient to demonstrate the maximum degree of genuine multipartite entanglement and nonseparability with certainty when the parties' reference frames are aligned in one direction so that they differ only in rotations around one axis.
Quantum theory allows for correlations between the outcomes of distant measurements that are inconsistent with any locally causal model, as demonstrated by the violation of a Bell inequality. Typical demonstrations of these correlations require careful alignment between the measurements, which requires distant parties to share a reference frame. Here, we prove, following a numerical observation by Shadbolt et al., that if two parties share a Bell state and each party preforms measurements along three perpendicular directions on the Bloch sphere, then the parties will always violate a Bell inequality. Furthermore, we prove that this probability is highly robust against local depolarizing noise, in that small levels of noise only decrease the probability of violating a Bell inequality by a small amount. We also show that generalizing to NNN parties can increase the robustness against noise. These results improve on previous ones that only allowed a high probability of violating a Bell inequality for large numbers of parties.
Quantum communication employs the counter-intuitive features of quantum physics for tasks that are impossible in the classical world. It is crucial for testing the foundations of quantum theory and promises to revolutionize information and communication technologies. However, to execute even the simplest quantum transmission, one must establish, and maintain, a shared reference frame. This introduces a considerable overhead in resources, particularly if the parties are in motion or rotating relative to each other. Here we experimentally show how to circumvent this problem with the transmission of quantum information encoded in rotationally invariant states of single photons. By developing a complete toolbox for the efficient encoding and decoding of quantum information in such photonic qubits, we demonstrate the feasibility of alignment-free quantum key-distribution, and perform proof-of-principle demonstrations of alignment-free entanglement distribution and Bell-inequality violation. The scheme should find applications in fundamental tests of quantum mechanics and satellite-based quantum communication. Quantum communication promises important advances in information and communication technology, yet it suffers from alignment sensitivity. Here, an alignment-free approach is demonstrated using liquid crystal devices, allowing for broader applications, including satellites.
The question of testing the nonlocality of a single photon has raised much debate over the last years. The controversy is intimately related to the issue of providing a common reference frame for the observers to perform their local measurements. Here we address this point by presenting a simple scheme for demonstrating the nonlocality of a single photon which does not require a shared reference frame. Specifically, Bell inequality violation can be obtained with certainty with unaligned devices, even if the relative frame fluctuates between each experimental run of the Bell test. Our scheme appears feasible with current technology and may simplify the realization of quantum communication protocols based on single-photon entanglement.
We examine the problem of exhibiting Bell nonlocality for a two-qudit entangled pure state using a randomly chosen set of mutually unbiased bases (MUBs). Interestingly, even if we employ only two-setting Bell inequalities, we find a significant chance of obtaining a Bell violation if the two parties are individually allowed to measure a sufficient number of MUBs. In particular, for the case of maximally entangled qutrits and ququarts, our numerical estimates indicate that we can obtain near-guaranteed Bell violation by considering only such Bell inequalities. The case of maximally entangled ququints is similar, albeit the chance of ending up with a successful trial decreases somewhat to approximately 99.8499.84%99.84. Upon a closer inspection, we find that even all these no-violation instances violate some more-setting Bell inequalities. These results suggest that the experimental tests of Bell nonlocality for these higher-dimensional entangled states remain viable even if the two parties do not share a common reference frame.